This Owl Wasn't The Rockefeller Center Tree's First Feathered Stowaway

Jen Carlson

Published Nov 20, 2020

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The 2020 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Owl

Ravensbeard Wildlife Center

Jen Carlson

Published Nov 20, 2020

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Earlier this week, days after the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree was propped up in its open-air grave in Midtown, word came out that a secret passenger had been discovered within its lifeless branches: a tiny Northern Saw-whet Owl.

Later nicknamed "Rockefeller," the owl was transported to the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center in Saugerties, where it was fed mice and brought back to full strength after days of being trapped in the tree without food or water. Rockefeller is set to be released back into the wild at dusk on Saturday.

This was not the first time that wildlife local to the tree's roots had been transported to Manhattan on a flat bed truck, wrapped up in the tree's branches. Angela Higgins McNeil told Gothamist that in 2018, her father, Don Higgins, was a part of the tree crew at Rockefeller Center, and found an owl in the branches.

"[He was] part of the electrician crew, so as soon as the tree is up they start putting up the scaffolding and wiring extra branches in, the owl was chilling in there while the scaffolding was up," she told us. "I believe they caught him and brought him to an animal rescue."

The 2018 Rockefeller Center Tree Owl

Don Higgins

Suzanne Treyger, Forest Program Manager at Audubon New York, told Gothamist that "generally speaking, individual tree removal has minimal negative impacts to birds and other wildlife. This seems to be an isolated or infrequent incident of a bird being directly impacted, but thankfully surviving." However, she added that more should be done to protect wildlife prior to the tree's removal.

"In the future, a best management practice for selecting and removing the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is to inspect the tree for cavities or other active roosting sites," Treyger said. "If they are present, move on to identifying another suitable tree that does not show evidence of wildlife occupation. Perhaps work with a wildlife biologist to inspect trees prior to removal. Birds and other wildlife utilize evergreen or conifer tree species, like Norway spruce, during winter because they provide good thermal cover."

A Rockefeller Center spokesperson told Gothamist, "The tree has always been meticulously inspected branch by branch before being wrapped for travel to the City. Birds can make their way into it on the journey and even at Rockefeller Center."

Wildlife aside, some have expressed concern over the annual arboricide itself. As for the tradition of chopping down the city's tree — which began in 1931 when Depression-era construction workers decorated a 20-foot balsam fir — Treyger said that thousands of trees are cut down in the state every year for various reasons (public safety, landscaping, and clearing for development)." These trees usually come from someone's yard in the tri-state area, but overall, "trees are doing quite well in New York," she said. "New trees are sprouting naturally all the time and the amount of forest in the state is increasing. Cutting one tree for Rockefeller Center each year is essentially insignificant."

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